Chinese Char Siu Ribs

I love Chinese Barbecued Pork Spare Ribs. I thought that for today I would share a simple, easy recipe for Char Siu ribs with you! Char Siu is Cantonese and means Barbecued Marinated Pork. These take about a half hour of prep work, and four hours to marinate, and a little over three hours to cook. Here is a preview…

Preview

Are you ready to head into the kitchen?

Ingredients
Pork Spare Ribs (you can use baby back if you prefer but spare ribs have more meat on them)
1/2 cup of Hoisin Sauce
1/2 cup of bourbon
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup dark soy sauce
2 TBS sesame oil
2 TBS Tapatio hot sauce
2 TBS powdered ginger
2 TBS onion powder
1 TBS garlic powder
1 TBS 5 Spice powder
1 tsp red food coloring (Optional)

The first thing that I do is take the side of spare ribs and cut them into individual pieces. Set these aside.

In a zipper bag combine the rest of the ingredients, shaking the bag well to get the powdered parts incorporated. Reserve about 2/3 of a cup of this marinade. Add the pork ribs to remaining marinade in the bag. Let the ribs marinate for four hours. Take the ribs out of the refrigerator one hour before cooking.

Preheat the oven to 225 degrees (107C). Take a large baking pan with an edge and fill the pan half way with water. Then lay a rack over the pan.

The pan is ready

Place the ribs on the rack fat side up.

Marinated ribs are positioned and ready for the oven!

Carefully place this in the oven and let this bake for three hours. Over the last half hour baste the ribs three times with the reserved marinade.

Baste the ribs

Now to give this a bit of a crunch set the oven to broil and baste one final time. Set just below the broiler and keep an eye on them so that they do not burn! This will cause the sugars to caramelize a bit. Remove from the oven and serve!

Ribs are ready!

I like to have this with a good fried rice and fresh vegetables that are steamed or stir fried!

Let me know if you try this recipe! I hope you do as it is very tasty! And, they make good cold leftovers!

Thanks for stopping by and be well!

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Vegetables from the Garden

I had every hope of having a bounty from my vegetable garden this year. There was not as much as I hoped for. Even so, here are some of the amazing home grown veges from my garden over the years!

I love acorn squash baked with maple syrup and butter!

Acorn squash

There is nothing like the sweet flavors of home grown corn on the cob! These were very sweet!

Sweet, sweet corn

Here is a brilliant display of some colorful tomatoes!

Pretty slices

I love taking a huge zucchini, hollowing out the middle, stuffing it with tomatoes, herbs and then topping it with mozzarella! It tastes just like pizza! Here are a few of huge zucchini!

Huge zucchini picked fresh today!

For some reason, fresh home grown onions seem to be stronger in flavor than store bought. So, I now grow these every year!

Just plain onions!

And I love the flavor of a fresh artichoke! How about you?

Artichoke

Now I am hungry for some fresh, fresh veges!

Thank you for stopping by today! May you have a terrific day! Be well! ^..^

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Eggs, Eggs and More Eggs!

Well that title says it all, eh? Have you guessed what this post is about? 🙂 There are so many different ways to cook and eat eggs. They become a component in a lot of recipes. Today I wanted to share with you some of the many different recipes that I have previously posted on eggs!

Slop is one of my favorite egg recipes. Take whatever you have leftover in the kitchen, toss it with scrambled eggs and you have slop! Good for breakfast, lunch or dinner! This is good too when you go camping! Check it out!

Slop is served!

I love bagels. Having come from the east coast, I find that good bagels are hard to find. I discovered that our local grocery, Raley’s, has authentic bagels cooked in water. Bagels go really great with eggs as a sandwich. Here is what I created in my recipe Fried Eggs on Bagels.

Fried eggs, sausage and bagel is served!

Then there is Joe’s Special! Eggs with spinach, burger and mushrooms: To die for! What do you think?

Dinner is served!

I grew up eating Matzo Brei. There is just something comforting about a breakfast or dinner made with matzo…Add a little jelly and you have a sweet meal!

Serve it up with jelly!

Have I made you hungry? I know that I am!

Have an amazing day and thank you for taking the time to visit with me! Be well! ^..^

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Cooking Different Kinds of Fish!

I love fish! The delicate flavors are amazing as are the different textures that you can find in fish. Let’s take a moment to check out some different ways to cook fish. Ready to head into the kitchen?

When we were in Arizona, we stopped by this restaurant and had amazing fish and chips with the fish being Mahi Mahi! It was delish! So, I made this for us here at home! The recipe: Mahi Mahi Fish and Chips

Dinner is served!

Tilapia is a very mild fish, and I love to make Oven Fried Fish with this delicate gem. Check this out!

Dinner is served!

Doesn’t this look good?

Salmon can be cooked a number of different ways. I like to oven bake it and featured this recipe, which I dubbed The Salmon Fishing Queen Cooks Salmon! This fish is flaky and tender!

Dinner is served!

If you would like something a bit different, my friend Steve from college days, would make what I call Steve’s Baked Fish. I use tilapia in this dish, but you can also use snapper or cod! The yellow peppers kick the heat up a notch on this dish!

Dinner is served!

Yummy!

Thanks for stopping by today, and enjoy your day! Have fish for dinner tonight! Be well! ^..^

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Comfort Foods!

Comfort food! It makes you feel warm and cozy on a cold day. The amazing flavors of comfort foods helps you to sleep at night. Cooking comfort foods can bring a family together in the kitchen when it comes to putting it all together! Let’s check out some comfort foods from past posts. See what you think!

Let’s begin with a hearty beef stew. Here is a recipe for one made with a hearty Cabernet! The wine makes this dish as done the addition of a bit of bacon! Just enough bacon to make this rich! The recipe: Hearty Cabernet Beef Stew.

Hearty Cabernet Beef Stew

There is something about a hearty sauce over pork that just makes my mouth water thinking about it! Check out this recipe for Sierra Foothills Chops!

Sierra Foothills Chops

I love a good soup that warms the bones. To do this I love a Cream of Broccoli with Mushroom Soup! Doesn’t this look yummy?

Cream of Broccoli with Mushrooms

Chicken Paprikash with Spaetzle is another comfort food that comes to mind. The flavors on this recipe sure does pop! Yummm…

Dinner is served!

Please let me know if you try any of these! They are all very tasty dishes!

Have a wonderful day, and thank you for taking the time to check out today’s post!

Be well! ^..^

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Harvest 2014

You might remember that this year was the first year of using wine barrels in the garden. The barrels were to thwart the gophers and they did their job. What they did not deal with, though, were the ground squirrels! Yes, my garden has been ravaged by ground squirrels! Ground squirrels know how to climb!

At the beginning of the season the zucchini and acorn squash were doing rather well. Then the eating began! As the fruit started to develop the little rug rats discovered them. I had to share! Not that I minded at that point because we were getting plenty to eat. Then they started to eat the flower blossoms! Yup! They ate the blossoms! And, the birds? Well they picked the leaves off the green beans, wax beans, Tuscan melons, and the watermelon too!

We did get some amazing corn! And, we are waiting for the hundreds of tomatoes to turn red. Due to having turned my ankle, I sent my husband to the garden yesterday to harvest onions, carrots and potatoes! So, today I share this bounty with you!

The potato seeds indicated these were to be fingerlings. Clearly they are not but they sure are a nice mix of different potatoes!

Colorful potatoes

Check out these carrots and onions! The aroma from the onions: Amazing!

Carrots and onions

Let’s look at them a bit closer!

Onions before cleaning

Carrots before a good scrub

One of the carrots was a mutant!

One odd carrot!

My husband got busy scrubbing and here is the cleaned up produce!

Cleaned up!

The entire bounty

The best part? Fresh vegetables to go with our dinner!

Eating fresh!

Pretty aren’t they? The taste? Phenomenal!

I hope you enjoyed our little harvest! Now go out and have a great Monday, and week for that matter! Thanks for stopping by! Be well! ^..^

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Short Ribs Revisited!

I absolutely love short ribs! When these little bundles of joy are slowly cooked the flavors are not only heavenly, but very rich as well! There is nothing better than a good short ribs dinner paired with garlic mashers! Of course, you have to remember to serve a vegetable! My mother-in-law was a believer in five vegetables to go with every meal, and I always think of her when serving food. I do not always get in the five, but I do get in the veges! So, shall we head into the kitchen to take a look at different short rib recipes? OK! Let’s go!

Here are two different methods of cooking short ribs. One is slow braising in the oven, The Best Short Rib Recipe Ever!, the other two are braised in the crockpot, Crockpot Braised Short Ribs, or, No Bones About It!

What is important with short ribs is browning the meat! This seals in the flavor of the short ribs!

Browned short ribs

The other thing that is important is cooking down the beef broth to intensify the flavors of it!

Cooking down the beef broth

I discovered that cooking short ribs with a porter and some vegetables, like onion, carrots and mushrooms, gives this dish more flavor. You can also use wine, which is featured in the “No Bones” recipe.

Porter, onions, mushrooms, carrots, oh my!

When cooking with the crockpot, do not remove the lid! But with oven braising, you will want to turn the short ribs. Here is a photo of the oven braised mid-way through cooking! Tell me, can’t you just smell them? Mmmm….

Half way through cooking

When all is said and done, they all look lovely when done! Here is the one that is oven braised:

Short ribs

And, here are the two crockpot short ribs! This one is with a stout beer.

Dinner is served!

And, this one is with wine!

Dinner is served!

Are you thinking of trying one of these? Please let me know if you try either recipe! You can get to the recipes by clicking on the method you prefer! Oven braised, or Crockpot braised with Stout, or Crockpot braised with Wine!

Thank you for stopping by today! Have an amazing day and be well! ^..^

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